What Can Android Learn From Apple? [Forum Talk]

A bit slow on the news today, guys, so why not participate in some discussions going on over at AndroidForums.com? Taking a stroll myself, I stumbled upon a few interesting threads that might be worth your time and could be entertaining for a bit. Take a look below.

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Android should try to learn from everyone: Blackberry, WebOS, Symbian, ios, even WP7

ToastnJam

Seriously ksizzle? Are we 12 y/o?
+1 on Handcent, awesome sms app.

paul

Android needs to have some minimal specs.

1. All phones should have a physical camera button (like windows 7)
2. All phones should have a LED Notification light
3. All top end phones should have minimum ram of 1Gb

Droiiid

Android cant learn jack from Apple, theyre way ahead of them. But i do have some suggestions for Android in general. Most of these are just OCD things of mine but would also add to the polish of Android IMO…

Android should require that all icons be the same size. Shape, I don’t care, because I don’t like app grids of all squares anyway. It looks boring. I just want all my icons the same size. The Redbox app icon is way smaller than the Vevo icon even though they’re both squares.

Also I don’t like that a YouTube icon can look different on a Galaxy S and a Droid X. All Android icons should be the same across all Android phones IMO.

Android should have minimum specs for phone makers on the next OS update (icecream?) and keep it that way from there on out. That way LG cant put out a crappy 500 Mhz phone and devs can make games run easier on all phones.

acupunc

I agree with ari-free. It’s wise to look at what everyone else is doing, test them out, see what works well and what doesn’t and then innovate and get creative with what you see working well.

One clear thing that gets a lot of press is battery life. Apple uses draconian control freak measures to ensure that they get the best battery life they can out of iOS devices. Android simply needs to ensure that optimal practices are taking place within app development in the Android Market, don’t allow apps that use “bad practices” into the Market–they can sell their app anywhere else they want or adjust the app for better user experience.

The reason I think this is needed is, most users are clueless to figure out why their Android device is getting bad battery life–almost always it’s due to a third-party app.

Well, that’s my two cents anyways. . .

Droiiid

Have to agree with Paul on the camera button and led noti light. Ugh, if only WP7 OS wasn’t so ugly. They could have been right in the sweet spot of iOS and Android.

G11

Only two things IMO … the rest will weed itself out.

1. UI matters. A lot. I think they are getting the idea as even Honeycomb has a lot of UI polish … but stock Android practically begs for manufacturers to make things like Sense …. because it’s just so UGLY. But so far 2.2 gave use framework changes …. 2.3 gave us framework changes … and all I see on the phone horizon are framework changes.

2. Google needs to control updates. Maybe I’m going to double back on myself on #1 because that will likely require more framework changes, but seriously this needs to be done. Hardware manufacturers should be supplying their monolithic kernel, some custom APKs for supporting cool add-on-x, maybe an API fork for a custom hardware feature … but Google should be pushing the updates. What we want out of our smart phones is really only varying via hardware … and only in that we want it faster.

ari-free

Yes updates…would be nice if everyone just got them from google instead of pleading and begging OEM’s and carriers.

Syrenz

Not sure what Android should learn from Apple, but I do agree that it can learn some stuff from WP7. Most importantly, like WP7, google should control updates. Honestly, I love Android and all but I could easily see myself getting a WP7 as my next phone primarily for the fact that I know it will be updated and not become outdated as soon as the manufacturer has a better model out.

In terms of getting the same specs on all phones, I don’t really agree with that. I like the versatility here so you can figure out what you want your phone for.

I think WP7 has done right some of the stuff Android has done wrong, even though I do love my Android.

Syrenz

Er, I guess technically speaking Apple does updates as well lol. The thing I like about WP7 is that it nailed the updating part as well as the wide range of phones part.

DJ

All of the major smartphones OSs (Android, iOS, RIM, Symbian, etc.) all learn from, and take ideas from one another (which is why everyone is always suing everyone else for intellectual property), which is a good thing – competition drives innovation.
@Droiiid – Try out ADW launcher EX, the icons are highly customizable, and you can put them all on square tiles if you like, which gives a more uniform look.

The two biggest requirements I would like to see for Android phones across the board are:
1) unencrypted/unlockable bootloaders so you can flash new ROMs on YOUR phone, and are not at the mercy of the companies involved to push out updates with all of their crap on it. Obviously, every manufacturer wants to differentiate themselves, and it would be ridiculous to have 200+ different phones all running vanilla Android; if it is unlockable, then you have more options available to you.
2 A universal docking system for ALL Android phones. Obviously, it couldnt be a one-size-fits-all like the iPhone (because there is one iPhone and a ton of Android phones) but there should be a dock adapter for each phone. This could be done very easily with a micro USB and some plastic casings to fit the phone with the output being the same across the board. Lots of things have iDocks because they’re all the same. No one is going to sell you a home theater system with 200 docks packaged with it so you have the right Android dock.
3) More and more out-of-the-box customizability. I was pretty impressed with the TBolts ability to change lockscreens, colors, etc. I would like to see the type of customizability out of the box that say, Ultimate Droid gives you. I root regardless for a lot more reasons than themes, but it would be VERY cool if you could change fonts, notification bar size/color/icons, etc. easily without rooting.
Just my two cents.

Richard Yarrell

Based on what I’ve seen and the advancement of android over these last 2years they appear to be off and to the races…As far as i am concerned in ways they all can learn from one another…But one thing holds true android rules all platforms period…

Dave

Google should make sure each phone is as smooth and lag fee as the iPhone and beautify it a tad. They should also make sure the market has more categories so apps are easier to find. Other than that, Android is supeior

http://www.mobilexvideos.com videos

I dont like how qwertys seem to be appearing less and less.

Not sure if a virtual keyboard will ever replace a nice key for me. I also need at least a 4.3 screen to even use a vk.

Typing on a screen just isnt the same- sure it lets the phone have no moving parts and be real thin, other than that.. meh

craig

@droiiid I have to say as much as I hate apple we still can learn from them. If it wasn’t for the Iphone we may not even have phones that we do now or even the Android system. Apple made other companies want to compete to be the best… So I have to say that maybe we can learn from IOS. For example Apple is very secure we as Android lovers need to see what IOS does to be so secure and enhance that so that way we are protected as users… So before you say that read this and tell me what you think!

Jeff47

May I add why the hell are people forgetting about ChompSMS being the BEST and CLEANEST sms application out there!! Screw the ads, I’m glad they’re making revenue off them, and I just want ALL android phones equipped with flash LED or dual, I’m not greedy =), my 2 cents and nothing else.

5. Agreement with manufacturers and carriers to update android os software to some reasonable point over time

barry

Animations, animations and more animations. Joe public doesn’t care about specs. They want thin, fast, user friendly and bad ass animations. Phone manufacturers need to start making their phones look like diamonds. Anyone can build a plastic rectangle box.

Brian

Rather than a camera button how about a programmable button. That u can use for a camera button or something else. Ever since I saw that on a BBI thought it should be a standard

Brian

We should find a way to get the word out about demanding users being able to.customize their hardware on their mobile devices

Brian

That would be the shit. I’d love working over a magnifying glass installing little processors and ram sticks lol. If users could go to a llocal store and have them make a custom phone that would b the ultimate wet dream for end users

buckets-o-bots

Less fragmentation.

slaguru

Unified app creation guidelines, so I dont have three apps that all have different UIs.

Better App storage and execution. YOu should not have to worry about how many apps you have and where they are stored, only overall space you have to play with, and on a phone with a 16gb SD card that should be 16gb!!!

All phones to have Android skins as OPTIONAL, so we can get updates as SOON as they are released.

Hate Apple fans all you like, but one thing most of them dont do is compare IOS to Android at the drop of a hat. It feels like every Android user has to justify themselves by not extolling the virtues of Android, but running down and comparing against IOS. Why, why be so insecure. So many comments I see people say they HATE Apple ????. Really ???, what are they doing to you ???. You have an EVO, or a Droid, cant you be happy with that ???. Save your hate for Col Gadaffi or BP.

ari-free

Trust me, Apple fans really hate Android. They hated Microsoft because it was this big monopoly and now they hate Android because it is too free for them. It was always ideological and that’s why they are a pain in the neck. Nobody has a hard time with symbian and blackberry fans because they just want something that works for them.

Lulu

Lesson to learn: stop acting like you are the king and other companies/developers have to bow to your feet and beg you to accept their apps.

If you only provide the OS, not matter how popular you are, it’s the apps/softwares that make or break you. So developers are the king.

DanGrover

I think the biggest thing is that they really need to make it as easy as possible to get GPU acceleration running in the UI. That’s one thing where Apple is a country-mile ahead – the UI is almost always smooth, despite the specs of their phones often not being better than the competition, and often being worse. Not only that, but the GPU is made specifically for graphics transformations – having the (otherwise unused) GPU tasked with that not only frees up the CPU to do other things if need be, but also saves battery because the CPU isn’t always blitzing at capacity just trying to draw some menu animations. The GPU is designed for this, and it’s much more efficient with it, so it uses less battery to do the same thing, as well as improving the user experience.

http://www.cpmma.net Josh

What they can learn is quality control and release dates. There is little to no standards for android phones. As much as people hate to admit it, there is a reason Iphone took off in games. Developers know exactly what they are programing for. This is the same reason that consoles are easier to develop for – no fragmentation.

hmm,,what can android learn from apple?hmm,,,,weelll,,,they can learn to have a small screen,one button,cheap camera,useless market,worse os.

what can apple learn from android?
big variety,to stop repeating the exact same phone but with a squarer model,how to get a good camera,how to get gorrila glass,how to have a good market,how to have a return policy,how to have a good music player,how to have a good browser,how to have a good youtube,how to have more than one button,how to have a bigger screen,and how to have a good operating system!!!